One Man's Ramblings

Well, looks like this is the last column I will be writing for a while. Please ... hold your applause, and wait until an appropriate time to break out the spirits for the big celebration.

It has been an honor and a privilege to have been part of the Leader for the past 18 years. I came back home from Fort Worth when Dad’s health took a turn for the worse, to help with him and the paper.

It’s not like they really needed my help at the paper. Mom and Kari and Sherrie were doing a standup job of it. Maybe I lessened their workload a bit. They have been a joy to work with all these years, and I will miss their daily comradarie. They are collectively smart, talented, and pretty funny. I could have had a worse crowd.

It meant a lot to me, spending those last few years with Dad. Even towards the end of his life, he had a knack of finding something humorful in a day, and sharing it.

And Mom is a true treasure, someone I always enjoy spending time with. Me and my four sisters will kid her at times, but she is one of the prettiest, smartest, brightest and funniest women I have ever known in my life. After all these years of working her tail off, she has an opportunity to get out there and experience other places. I plan to help her do that best I can.

Kari will likely be writing more and more, perhaps unrestrained from the careful considerations of writing for a weekly paper. Trust me, there are limitations to what things we could discuss in a column.

But she is scary talented and funny as all get out. I have for years called her the Erma Bombeck of the New Millennium. I don’t think it will be long before she finds her voice, and a large and receptive audience.

Sherrie has been a pleasure to be around, and work with as well. She is a driven soul, concerned and dedicated with making Iowa Park as best it can be, and is a strong voice at city council meetings. She will go on to bigger and better things, I have no doubt.

I focused all my years here mostly on our schools, and I had a blast doing it. My first year here, the volleyball girls nicknamed me Kodak, and that was what they called me for years until it didn’t make sense anymore because the kids had no clue what Kodak meant.

But I still found ways to connect with the kids, their coaches, the teachers and administrators. We have a special bunch in Iowa Park. It has been that way long as I can remember, even back to the days I roamed the halls at IPHS.

And I believe it will remain that way.

I believe Iowa Park’s identity will suffer just a little bit with this paper’s departure. There won’t be a more dedicated entity telling the story of this town and its people, even if you may believe these days everything you need to know about the goings on in Iowa Park can be found on Facebook.

Thank you, Iowa Park, for giving the Leader and the Hamiltons so many years of your friendship and support. We love you dearly.